NYC-Mom call cops to help find her autistic son. Cops find, taser and put him in hospital

[Anti Federalist]

From an incident last year, only now coming to light due to the lawsuits.


Mom Regrets Calling 9-1-1 for Help After Police Showed Up and Tasered Her Nonverbal Autistic Son

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/mot...psvOXYB7LRI.99

By Matt Agorist on October 3, 2015

Bronx, NY — A mother is regretting her decision to call the police to help her find her son last year after their visit landed the 24-year-old nonverbal autistic man in the hospital.

Ana Baltazar, mother of Miguel Torruella, called 9-1-1 last year after her son went missing. Within an hour, the police had found Torruella. However, lacking the training and subsequent competence to deal with a nonverbal autistic person, the NYPD used the only resource they have to handle the situation – violence.

When police found Torruella, he was scared and lost, walking down the street. Torruella’s inability to communicate with the officers apparently enraged them, so one officer resorted to his taser.

“The police encountered Miguel on the street. He was lost. He can’t communicate. They interpreted this as him being uncooperative, and they tasered him in order to bring him into custody,” explained Dave Thompson, the family’s attorney.

Instead of getting a call that police found her son and he is okay, Baltazarto gets a call from the cops telling her that her son is in the hospital, and they had put him there.

“He hasn’t been able to fall asleep in his own bed ever since the incident and he is nervous,” Ana Baltazarto told PIX11 News, in Spanish.

The family is now taking legal action as none of the officers involved will ever be fired, or even disciplined. They have filed a federal lawsuit against the NYPD, alleging that police violated the civil rights of Miguel.

According to PIX11, the NYPD would not comment on the case due to pending litigation.

Police officers hurting or even killing mentally ill people is an unfortunate norm in today’s society. The lack of training and incompetence in dealing with mentally challenged individuals is a deadly fault among departments from coast to coast.

A study released last year by the American Psychiatric Association found that Crisis Intervention Training (CIT)-trained officers “had sizable and persisting improvements in knowledge, diverse attitudes about mental illnesses and their treatments, self-efficacy for interacting with someone with psychosis or suicidality, social distance stigma, de-escalation skills and referral decisions.”

[Dr.3D]

Cops were probably jealous they are not artistic like the kid.

[navy-vet]

Cops were probably jealous they are not artistic like the kid.

lol

[EBounding]

Look, what if he had a weapon? Or a bomb? It wasn't the police who harmed him, but his mental disorder.

[fisharmor]

Ok, so what about the cases where police were trained in how to deal with neuro-atypical targets, and still beat the $#@! out of them or killed them?

If there's one thing that pisses me off about these stories, it's that they always come from the perspective that policing is a system that can work, if we just get the right people or give them the right training.

Someone calling himself "Matt Agorist" should $#@!ing well know better. It's one thing when some establishment mouthpiece does this, but when it's done by someone who openly claims to be actually capable of sitting down and examining a system for what it really is, it's tantamount to an unforgivable offense.

[Anti Federalist]

Ok, so what about the cases where police were trained in how to deal with neuro-atypical targets, and still beat the $#@! out of them or killed them?

If there's one thing that pisses me off about these stories, it's that they always come from the perspective that policing is a system that can work, if we just get the right people or give them the right training.

Someone calling himself "Matt Agorist" should $#@!ing well know better. It's one thing when some establishment mouthpiece does this, but when it's done by someone who openly claims to be actually capable of sitting down and examining a system for what it really is, it's tantamount to an unforgivable offense.

Baby steps brother, baby steps.

The very concept of abolishing the state's enforcement arm is so foreign to your typical AmeriKan, it is as if you suggested gluing wings on your arms and flying to the moon.

[Occam's Banana]

Ok, so what about the cases where police were trained in how to deal with neuro-atypical targets, and still beat the $#@! out of them or killed them?

If there's one thing that pisses me off about these stories, it's that they always come from the perspective that policing is a system that can work, if we just get the right people or give them the right training.

Someone calling himself "Matt Agorist" should $#@!ing well know better. It's one thing when some establishment mouthpiece does this, but when it's done by someone who openly claims to be actually capable of sitting down and examining a system for what it really is, it's tantamount to an unforgivable offense.

^^^ THIS x 1000.

I've noticed the same damn thing - and though I have also seen it from other sources, thefreethoughtproject.com seems to be especially bad about it.

Here's another example from just a month ago: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...quot-high-quot

And here's one from almost a year ago: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...olding-a-spoon

Judging by the number of recent cases in the news where police end up killing mentally ill people, it seems that officers have little training or understanding of how to deal with people mental illness.

Just last month we reported on a case where a mom called the cops to take her son to a mental health facility, police responded and shortly after arriving on scene shot and killed her son.

Then there was the recent case of a Utah man that called a suicide prevention hotline for help, police responded with a SWAT team, eventually killing the man.

These cases, in addition to the tragic case of Kelly Thomas, who begged for his life as he was beat to death by officers, highlight how inept, or possibly callous, police are in dealing with those suffering from mental illness.

What, pray tell, makes anyone think that things would be ANY different EVEN if cops DID have such "training" or "understanding?"

Although I know thefreethoughtproject.com is critical of police abuses, why do they grant police this kind of "wiggle room?"

After all, would incidents like this be any less problematic if the victims were NOT "mentally ill" ... ?

[fisharmor]

Don't misunderstand me, AF. I'm well aware how crazy that crazy talk is.
What I'm commenting on is that this guy is claiming to be an Agorist, posting on a site dedicated to free thought, with headlines on the site as of right now that say

"Badge Abuse"
"Police Brutality"
"25 Things Generation Xers Did as Kids that Could Get Today's Kids Arrested"

We aren't talking about the Washington Compost. We're looking at what appears to be the internet's crazy talk Grand Central Station.

He had a choice in what to convey in the article. He chose to convey that the solution to this problem is training and competence.
He had an obligation, considering where he was writing, to reinforce the idea that the problem is the police system itself.

If the crazy people can't talk crazy talk to other crazy people who go to crazy sites looking for crazy ideas, then my great-grandchildren are still going to be getting strangled on the sidewalk.